Archive for February, 2008

Argh! Worst case scenario! Crisismanagers all around! Yesterday around 12:00 our ADSL line stopped working. It’ll probably take untill this afternoon before I’ll be reconnected. Of course you question how it’s possible to post something on Livenews without internet: well, it’s through an open wireless line with Signal Strenght: No Signal. Very nice. For everybody who doesn’t know how important an internet line is for me: I own an internet company. So please feel sorry for me… I think I’ll start to read a book. Or make a drawing. Or I could go for a walk in the park. Have some coffee somewhere. Wow, there is a lot of things one can do without internet.

Argh, it’s one of those days that I need to make a statement. So here I go.

This morning the news came that the Dutch Healthcare Council thinks it’s a good idea to put extra taxes on unhealthy food products. They say it will make people more responsible for their own health. It’s one of those ideas in line with taxes on cigarettes, extra healthcare costs for smokers and fastfood junkies, and the brandnew tax on dutch flight tickets.

It looks like The Netherlands are moving in the direction of paying for freedom. This means that things that the government thinks are not good for you or the society, will become more expensive. That may sound like a legitimate thing to do, but it isn’t. The thought that people will become more responsible when they feel their choices affect their financial situation, is just crazy. It’s thinking in the wrong way. It may lead to a situation where money becomes our most important and only value. Assuming that that’s not the case already, of course. It’s suppressing people’s own responsibilities. In the end, the reason why we shouldn’t eat unhealthy, smoke, drive or fly too much will be no more than a financial one.

Creating awareness by putting taxes may be the most stupid way of solving problems I’ve ever heard of. Because it doesn’t solve anything. A false suggestion, a cheap façade for more tax income. And beyond the financial issue: when did we stop accepting that people make bad choices? Everybody does. It’s like death and taxes.

Apparently I’m living at Europe’s longest commercial street! Ha! I didn’t know. For everybody who is interested in my neighbourhood: I just found a website today that’s about my street: creucoberta.com. Very funny. The website is not so up-to-date, but at least I’m living in a street with a website! Another funny fact: our neighbourhood is named “Hostafrancs”, wich comes from “Hostal Franc”, which means “Free Hostal”. And that’s really funny, because all our guests refer to our appartment as a free hostal – it’s even written on our wall

Some of you already know Hieke. For those of you who don’t: she is my flatmate. And besides that, she is a kick-ass journalist who just started to seriously take over the dutch media with news about Barcelona and other parts of this world. She’s busy bringing this freelance journalist thing to the next level. It’s real fun to see the inside world of journalism, by the way. Soooo… I just wanted you all to take a look at her website, in case you’re looking for a journalist in Barcelona. So all of you powerfull people: start leaking to this girl The website is by the way still under development, but powered by Epublica so for sure it will be fine.

Our annual statistics report 2007 proves that Marius is far more popular than beatboxing. With 21,43% “Marius Hordijk” is the leading keyword that leads to Livenews. Followed by “leren beatboxen” with 4.67%. And we have more of these uninteresting facts: Niels, an old temporary Livenews author, is also popular with 3.15%. While he never writes anymore! And for some reason the 2nd of August, 2007 was our most busy day with 511 visits.

Of course we’ve put all the facts together in the first Livenews Annual Statistics Report 2007 (PDF). Thanks to Google Analytics.